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Sunday, 22 March 2015

22 March 1979: The IRA assassinated the British Ambassador to Holland
on this day. In one of the most audacious attacks launched outside of these
islands the Provisional IRA targeted Sir Richard Sykes and shot dead him dead.
They also gunned down his butler Karel Straub in the mistaken belief he was the
Ambassadors bodyguard. Two gunmen opened fire on Sir Richard and his Dutch
footman as they left his residence at The Hague to make the short car journey
to the British Embassy.

The Ambassador was a noted security expert and at the time there was
much initial speculation in the Netherlands and in Britain that other groups
under suspicion at the tome (including Palestinians and Iraqis) could have
targeted him. He was appointed to the job in June 1977 after a two year posting
as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office deputy under-secretary in London. He was
an acknowledged expert on security affairs and had been a diplomat in Cuba,
Peking and Washington. Ironically he was responsible for an internal report on
the safety of British diplomats following the Assassination by the IRA in 1977
of the British ambassador to Dublin, Sir Christopher Ewart-Biggs.